![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kniteracyLast night, despite the fact that we'd been at folk clubs the previous two nights and despite the fact that I had lots of packing and preparation to do for the weekend, J, G and I took in the Dervish show at Cecil Sharp House's Kennedy Hall. I'd done some legwork for their UK promoter, Simon, so he comped the whole family, which was a sweet thing for him to do. I hope they made lots of money last night, because I'd love for them to come back.
The review is mostly positive but, I admit, mixed.
First of all, Dervish are a really tight band full of session musicians who clearly know how to play together and stay together. The fiddler appears to be a recent replacement, since various websites list different fiddlers for the band, but he was just fine, though not as energetic as the best fiddlers I've ever seen. Their flute player was absolutely topnotch, some of the best traditional flute playing I'd heard for some time, likewise their melodeon player, who had a great sense of rhythm and did a great job of shaking things up. They had two fretted instrument guys who I suspect were fine musicians, but in a band like this, even though the single string work and picking were very good, they're always going to be overshadowed by the brighter instruments.
The tune sets were impressive, masterfully played and made interesting time and time again by instrumentation changes and deft segues between tunes. Very, very nice. Cathy Jordan's bodhran and bones playing are very nice as well.
I'm afraid the mixed review has to do with Jordan as a singer and stage presence. It might have been the PA at Cecil Sharp House, but they brought their own sound engineer and mixing board in, so I'm not sure. it might have been the acoustics in the hall, but I'm not sure about that either since people have been playing and singing there for generations. Cathy Jordan has a very straight-Irish voice, but with a lot of power, and she has an impressive range. Her tone quality is far front and slightly nasal, which I expected and which isn't unpleasant to me.
What was unpleasant was that I couldn't understand a word that she sang, even when she was singing in English. Even when she was singing a song I already knew the words to (Bob Dylan's Spanish Boots). She seemed, as J said, to be concentrating on the vowels and not the consonants. She wanted the audience to sing along with her on a number in Irish, but frankly I never got the words at all, though the tune was easy to grasp. I la la laed.
The other thing about Cathy that I (and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aunty_marion too) found really distracting was that she does this really stylised marionette-type dancing throughout the whole performance, even when she's sitting down. She does these affected hand movements that are obviously improvised to go along with the music, but they look, well, affected. Unnatural. Almost creepy. It's like watching a Tim Burton film, watching this girl onstage. The sharp contrast with a band full of tight session musicians who are paying complete attention to the tune at hand was-- well, it was weird. It was incongruous. It was like she was a puppet. aunty_marion said she looked like a drunk, and I agreed with that as well. With the hairstyle and self-consciously odd clothing choices, I thought for a little while she wanted desperately to be Bjork, although their vocal encore ("Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves") made me realise that it was really Cher she wants to be; the hand movements were reminiscent of what Cher used to do back in the Sonny & Cher days.
It was too bad, really. I could tell she was really into her performance and the rest of the band was too-- and maybe there are some people like that who actually enjoy that kind of performance-art angle, but for me it distracted from otherwise very good to excellent performances. She didn't do this only when singing, see. When she wasn't singing, she sat down to play the bodhran or even to sit a number out, and she'd do this stuff from a sitting position.
That is not to say I did not enjoy the performance. I liked it very much. It was fine music, audience-pleasing, make-you-want-to-dance type music. There were of course some dancers in the audience, it being the CSH, who were invited onto an open part of the floor to dance, which was nice to see. The band were kind and slowed their "we're sessiun musicians so we play faster than any normal human with the exception of michael flatley who has sold his soul to the devil could possibly dance" tempo to the point where the dancers were just rushing to keep up and not falling over. It was fun. It was a great night out. G enjoyed it. J really enjoyed it.
If you get a chance, catch Dervish. They're a wonderful band with a deep knowledge of their tune base and a delightful presence onstage. Just, if you're distracted by goth puppetry, keep your eyes off Cathy and watch the players. ;-)
Tuesday at Sharps
It was actually a quiet night at Sharps. I didn't bring a harp so sang a capelle (Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom and Barbara Allen), and there were some nice singers there as usual. The most memorable moment for me was meeting a fellow called John, from Belfast, who was out of his element as Sharps is fairly trad, doing a fantastic version of a song called "Gabriel," which I know I've heard before, but web searches come up with a mishmash. It may be a song that Mary Black covered, by Shane Howard. Lyrics are here, though I'm not sure it is the same song. Anyway, this guy was a bit too rocked up for Sharps and I told him to come to Eltham the following night, but he must have found something else to do. I hope I see him again.
Wednesday at Folkmob
Well, everything has its ups and downs. I was down on Wednesday and I let someone who was being very rude in a folk club audience (drunk, laughing loudly, pointing at things, being distracting as hell) rattle me. In a bar, where everybody does that, this woman wouldn't have stood out, but at Folkmob, she was a sore thumb, and she stuck herself right in my eye. I'm not kidding: there she was through the harpstrings when I got up to do my short open mic set. She was awful, and I made a big mistake in a song I've performed hundreds of times. I'd never tanked quite like that before. People seemed to think it made me human-- or that's what they all said anyway. Highlight of Folkmob was a duo called Capella, a husband and wife team doing some really nice stuff, some of it funny. They did four or five songs because they were new and terrific and the last act of the night, and I got to talk to them a little bit. A fellow called Vic with an electric fiddle and a really cool mini amp that didn't weigh much and didn't cost a lot and runs on AA batteries (and I can't remember its damn name) showed up as well, and that was very nice. Had nice chat with people afterward and caught the 24-hour bus back to New Cross.
And now we come to the day itself. I'm about to have lunch with G and then get ready to go to the wilds of London suburbia to do this harp workshop thingy. I'll probably be out of pocket for most of the weekend, but you never know what could happen.
The review is mostly positive but, I admit, mixed.
First of all, Dervish are a really tight band full of session musicians who clearly know how to play together and stay together. The fiddler appears to be a recent replacement, since various websites list different fiddlers for the band, but he was just fine, though not as energetic as the best fiddlers I've ever seen. Their flute player was absolutely topnotch, some of the best traditional flute playing I'd heard for some time, likewise their melodeon player, who had a great sense of rhythm and did a great job of shaking things up. They had two fretted instrument guys who I suspect were fine musicians, but in a band like this, even though the single string work and picking were very good, they're always going to be overshadowed by the brighter instruments.
The tune sets were impressive, masterfully played and made interesting time and time again by instrumentation changes and deft segues between tunes. Very, very nice. Cathy Jordan's bodhran and bones playing are very nice as well.
I'm afraid the mixed review has to do with Jordan as a singer and stage presence. It might have been the PA at Cecil Sharp House, but they brought their own sound engineer and mixing board in, so I'm not sure. it might have been the acoustics in the hall, but I'm not sure about that either since people have been playing and singing there for generations. Cathy Jordan has a very straight-Irish voice, but with a lot of power, and she has an impressive range. Her tone quality is far front and slightly nasal, which I expected and which isn't unpleasant to me.
What was unpleasant was that I couldn't understand a word that she sang, even when she was singing in English. Even when she was singing a song I already knew the words to (Bob Dylan's Spanish Boots). She seemed, as J said, to be concentrating on the vowels and not the consonants. She wanted the audience to sing along with her on a number in Irish, but frankly I never got the words at all, though the tune was easy to grasp. I la la laed.
The other thing about Cathy that I (and
aunty_marion too) found really distracting was that she does this really stylised marionette-type dancing throughout the whole performance, even when she's sitting down. She does these affected hand movements that are obviously improvised to go along with the music, but they look, well, affected. Unnatural. Almost creepy. It's like watching a Tim Burton film, watching this girl onstage. The sharp contrast with a band full of tight session musicians who are paying complete attention to the tune at hand was-- well, it was weird. It was incongruous. It was like she was a puppet. aunty_marion said she looked like a drunk, and I agreed with that as well. With the hairstyle and self-consciously odd clothing choices, I thought for a little while she wanted desperately to be Bjork, although their vocal encore ("Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves") made me realise that it was really Cher she wants to be; the hand movements were reminiscent of what Cher used to do back in the Sonny & Cher days. It was too bad, really. I could tell she was really into her performance and the rest of the band was too-- and maybe there are some people like that who actually enjoy that kind of performance-art angle, but for me it distracted from otherwise very good to excellent performances. She didn't do this only when singing, see. When she wasn't singing, she sat down to play the bodhran or even to sit a number out, and she'd do this stuff from a sitting position.
That is not to say I did not enjoy the performance. I liked it very much. It was fine music, audience-pleasing, make-you-want-to-dance type music. There were of course some dancers in the audience, it being the CSH, who were invited onto an open part of the floor to dance, which was nice to see. The band were kind and slowed their "we're sessiun musicians so we play faster than any normal human with the exception of michael flatley who has sold his soul to the devil could possibly dance" tempo to the point where the dancers were just rushing to keep up and not falling over. It was fun. It was a great night out. G enjoyed it. J really enjoyed it.
If you get a chance, catch Dervish. They're a wonderful band with a deep knowledge of their tune base and a delightful presence onstage. Just, if you're distracted by goth puppetry, keep your eyes off Cathy and watch the players. ;-)
Tuesday at Sharps
It was actually a quiet night at Sharps. I didn't bring a harp so sang a capelle (Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom and Barbara Allen), and there were some nice singers there as usual. The most memorable moment for me was meeting a fellow called John, from Belfast, who was out of his element as Sharps is fairly trad, doing a fantastic version of a song called "Gabriel," which I know I've heard before, but web searches come up with a mishmash. It may be a song that Mary Black covered, by Shane Howard. Lyrics are here, though I'm not sure it is the same song. Anyway, this guy was a bit too rocked up for Sharps and I told him to come to Eltham the following night, but he must have found something else to do. I hope I see him again.
Wednesday at Folkmob
Well, everything has its ups and downs. I was down on Wednesday and I let someone who was being very rude in a folk club audience (drunk, laughing loudly, pointing at things, being distracting as hell) rattle me. In a bar, where everybody does that, this woman wouldn't have stood out, but at Folkmob, she was a sore thumb, and she stuck herself right in my eye. I'm not kidding: there she was through the harpstrings when I got up to do my short open mic set. She was awful, and I made a big mistake in a song I've performed hundreds of times. I'd never tanked quite like that before. People seemed to think it made me human-- or that's what they all said anyway. Highlight of Folkmob was a duo called Capella, a husband and wife team doing some really nice stuff, some of it funny. They did four or five songs because they were new and terrific and the last act of the night, and I got to talk to them a little bit. A fellow called Vic with an electric fiddle and a really cool mini amp that didn't weigh much and didn't cost a lot and runs on AA batteries (and I can't remember its damn name) showed up as well, and that was very nice. Had nice chat with people afterward and caught the 24-hour bus back to New Cross.
And now we come to the day itself. I'm about to have lunch with G and then get ready to go to the wilds of London suburbia to do this harp workshop thingy. I'll probably be out of pocket for most of the weekend, but you never know what could happen.
